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Arizona Governor Doug Ducey issued an executive order Tuesday prohibiting public universities and community colleges from mandating COVID-19 tests, vaccines and masks for students to participate in learning. The decision comes days after Dossey criticized the recent announcement from Arizona State University outlining COVID-19 protocols for the upcoming school year.
“The vaccine is working and we encourage Arizona to take it,” Ducey said in a statement. “But it is a choice and we have to keep it that way.” “Public education is a public right, and taxpayers pay for it. We need to make our public universities available for students to return to learning. They have already lost a lot of learning.”
This week, ASU Vice President of Student Services Joan Fogel said in an email to students that those who have received an authorized COVID shot and who have uploaded their vaccination records through a university portal will no longer have to wear face masks on campus. The university said that unvaccinated students will be selected for COVID testing and that face coverings will remain a requirement, as well as uploads of daily online health checks.
“As Sun Devils, we are committed to being part of the ASU nurturing community where we take care of ourselves, each other, and our community,” Vogel said in the email. “Managing COVID-19 is a matter of personal responsibility and public health, and we ask that you follow all protocols as they apply to our collective well-being.”
Dosey said Arizona’s fall protocols were “bad policy, baseless in public health. He tweeted a quote from Rochelle Wallinsky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she said, ‘If you’re fully vaccinated, you’re protected.'”
“Even the Biden administration was more reasonable,” Dossey, a Republican, wrote on Twitter.
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Arizona House of Representatives Representative Travis Graham said Tuesday that the university’s policy is “blatantly discriminatory” against unvaccinated students, and called for Vogel to end. “It is important that this authoritarian policy does not prevent any Arizonaans from gaining access to our public university system,” Graham said in a statement. For this reason, today I am calling for the immediate revocation of this policy.”
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A university spokesperson told CBS News that Arizona will comply with the governor’s executive order and amend its previous protocols.
“This week, we told our students what to expect when they return to campus in the fall. We did not inform the vaccine mandate. We reiterated our message that we expect students to be vaccinated given the health benefits, but we also offered students a choice in the matter,” the school said. . “And we have reported continuing current health protocols for students who have not yet been vaccinated because they are more vulnerable to contracting and spreading the virus.”
The university cited guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending institutions of higher education implement key prevention strategies.
Ducey said he is working with lawmakers to codify his executive order into law.
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